Morris Albert’s 1973 recording of “Feelings” was a big hit in 1974. The song was adapted, according to a 1987 jury verdict in Federal District Court in Manhattan, by Albert from the song “Pour toi,” composed in 1956 by Louis Gasté, with lyrics by Albert Simonin and his wife Marie-Hélène Bourquin, though it took a lengthy and eventually successful 1980s copyright infringement suit to legally name Gasté as co-songwriter. Albert also released an alternate version with a Spanish-language lyric, in 1974, which was evidently written by himself, as he’s the sole songwriter credited on the label (see below). In 1975, Israeli-born French pop star Mike Brant recorded a version of “Feelings” titled “Dis-lui” (“Tell him”), with the French lyric written by Michel Jourdan.

Pour toi(m. Louis Gasté, w. Albert Simonin, Marie-Hélène Bourquin)
“Pour toi” was recorded by the singer and actress Line Renaud, wife of Gasté, in 1956, and performed by Dario Moreno in the 1957 film Le Feu aux poudres. The arrangements of the song used by Moreno in the film and in a separate studio recording with an orchestra sound very little like Morris Albert’s 1973 recording of “Feelings,” though portions of the melody are similar. The 1956 recording by Line Renaud, in part, exhibits slightly greater resemblance to Albert’s “Feelings,” melodically and in tone, but it seems like a rather large leap to find that the melody of “Feelings” was copied or stolen from the French song.

The claim made by the plaintiff Gasté that Albert “gained access” to the virtually unknown song “Pour toi” through his publisher Fermata, which “had had some dealings with Gasté’s publishing company, Les Editions Louis Gasté, in the 1950s” was unaccompanied by evidence that such access was ever obtained.

Feelings— issued in 1974 on the single RCA Victor PB-10279, b/w “This World Today is a Mess” — US chart success: #6, Hot 100; #2, Adult Contemporary; also later released on the 1975 LP Feelings, RCA Victor ‎APL1-1018

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Sentimientos (aka “Dime”) — issued in 1974 on Beverly ‎(Brazil) 45-13.508; songwriting credited solely to Morris Albert on the label — A recording under the same title released by Mexican singer José José in 1974 has a different lyric.